Ashford W. Meikle, Business Reporter

Christopher Berry, chairman/CEO of Mayberry Investments Limited, watches as Doris Berry inserts the Mayberry's strip during the listing ceremony at the Jamaica Stock Exchange on Harbour Street, April 21, 2005. The Mayberry head said Saturday that stocks remain the best invesment choice for Jamaican investors. - File

Despite steep declines in the stock market, investment advisor Christopher Berry says stocks remain the best deal available for local investors.

"Local Equities have delivered spectacular returns since 1999 relative to all other investments," said Berry, chairman of Mayberry Investments Limited.

"International equities will deliver similar returns provided that one has the expertise to invest in that market."

The Jamaica Stock Exchange's broad JSE Index hit an all time high of 120,385 points in April 2005, but has since declined by more than 30 per cent to 82,301 points Monday.

Though the market showed some signs of life up to trading Monday, poor profit growth across most listed companies has maintained a damper on investor enthusiasm.

Berry, speaking on the weekend at an investor seminar hosted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Jamaica, said the market was being driven by myths, some of which he named as the belief that the local equities market is illogical and does not respond to results and information; market manipulation; the investor should buy and hold, and that stock market investing is akin to gambling.

Jamaican investors have experienced mixed and, in some cases, painful results on the local equities market over the past two years.

The current slides follow a bull run in 2004, in which the JSE index broached the 100,000 point barrier for the first time to record growth in that year of 66 per cent.

The market peaked on April 26, 2005, but by the end of that year began to show some signs of correction, with a nine per cent decline.

Since this year, there has been a 26 per cent plunge in the main JSE Index, from 103,750.13 points in January to 82,301.86 Monday.

But, according to Berry, investors can find opportunities in the current bear market which has seen the multiples of most companies trading at an all-time low.

"There is a saying, 'when the market is full of fear be greedy, and when the market is full of greed be fearful'," Berry said at the Hilton New Kingston forum.

Earnings slowdown

"We are in an earnings slowdown but not in all companies. The economy is growing but it's not a tight money market." The Mayberry chairman, whose company is one of those stocks with declining fortunes - coming from an all-time high of $4.30 to Monday's $1.83 price - said low or falling interests were needed to drive the market, liquidity in the economy, accelerated company earnings, and a relatively stable exchange rate.

Said Berry, citing as example a portfolio of Scotiabank, Gleaner, National Commercial Bank, Pan Jamaica Investments, Grace-Kennedy, Desnoes and Geddes, Lascelles and Radio Jamaica stocks: "If you had invested US$272,628 in that portfolio in 1999 it would now be valued at US$2.97 million, an overall increase of 990 per cent."

This level of return, he said, could not have been achieved if the investor had put the same amount of funds in real estate or fixed income securities.

"There are risks in investing in CD/Fixed income securities (such as inflation), and real estate in Jamaica does not always appreciate," he said.

ashford.meikle@glenaerjm.com